Hears about ancient disasters (9)
I believe the answer is:
tragedies
'disasters' is the definition.
('tragedy' can be a synonym of 'disaster')
'hears about ancient' is the wordplay.
'hears' becomes 'tries' ('try' can be a synonym of 'hear').
'about' indicates putting letters inside.
'ancient' becomes 'aged' (I've seen this before).
'tries' enclosing 'aged' is 'TRAGEDIES'.
(Other definitions for tragedies that I've seen before include "Hamlet' and 'King Lear' perhaps" , "Catastrophes, disasters" , "Emotion-inducing events" , "dramatic works" .)